This invention relates to a voice-messaging system and method through which anyone can conduct seminars, classes, support groups, workshops, team meetings, committee meetings, prayer circles, roundtable discussions, or any other kind of group discussion, group meeting, group interaction or the like, over the telephone or similar communications unit, without real-time interactions (non-real-time). The non-real-time aspect means that the participants are not connected simultaneously to a computer, telephonic system, or each other.
The group interactions of this invention are mediated by using a programmable voice messaging system (PVMS) which provides a “voice bulletin board” or “voice message board” or the like as a forum for a group dialogue. The interaction created is similar to the interactions created on private Internet message boards. However, the dialogue is not haphazard and unstructured, as the interactions often are on Internet message boards. Rather, the dialogue is structured in carefully organized rounds or cycles of interaction that proceed according to a preset schedule.
Others have invented other ways of conducting group interactions in non-real time. For example, seminars and support groups are now conducted on line in non-real-time in at least three ways. First, seminars or support groups are conducted on special Internet message boards, typically hosted on websites, wherein group members post and retrieve messages, creating a seminar or support-group dialogue over a period of time. Second, seminars and support groups are conducted through email “listservs:” group members send an email message to an email “list server,” and it automatically sends a copy of that email to the email boxes of all other group members; as other group members also submit email messages to the list server, a group dialogue is created. Third, seminar and support-group dialogues are conducted simply by using group email: a person sends an email message addressed to all the other members of a group, any of the other members of the group can click on the “reply to all” button or similar button, sending his or her further comments or questions to all other members. As the next step in the process, any one of these can later, at any time, also click on “reply to all” and continue the group dialogue in this way. Using these methods, non-real-time seminars or group interactions can be created on line over a period of days, weeks or months. Compared to the inventive method described herein, these methods generally lack structure or facilitated guidance of the interaction, and always lack the presence of human voices.
Group interactions can also be conducted on the Internet in real time with the well established art of chat rooms, such as those on AOL or MSN, or by instant messaging, such as “AOL Instant Messenger,” or “MSN Messenger.” Compared to the inventive method described herein, these methods generally lack structure and facilitated guidance of the interaction. They always lack the presence of human voices and non-real time aspects.
Group interactions can also be conducted in real time by telephonic communication using voice or video conferencing. Compared to the inventive method described herein, voice or video conferencing does not have the non-real time aspects.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method whereby members of a group can interact at disparate times and places, and using the power of the human voice to conduct the interaction.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide facilitated discussions in non-real time, whereby the facilitator has the capability to edit voice messages on the system, by reordering, rearranging, reorganizing, combining, redirecting, or deleting specific messages left by members of the group.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide facilitated, or moderated, discussions in non-real time, whereby the facilitator's and members communicate in rounds or cycles of interaction, in which the facilitator leaves a message, members listen and optionally respond, and the facilitator listens to and optionally edits the messages on the system, by reordering, rearranging, reorganizing, combining, redirecting, or deleting specific messages. The members then listen to the messages remaining on the system and optionally respond, repeating the round or cycle of interaction.
Interactive distance learning is well established, and usually involves both synchronous and asynchronous communications. These are usually computer based. The computer-based asynchronous mode, while permitting non-real time learning, does not have the advantage of reflecting voice tone. Synchronous mode, of course, demands simultaneous participation with the consequence of lost convenience to the recipients of the information. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,288,753, inventors DeNicola et al. describe a system and method for an interactive, Internet-based videoconferencing multicast operation which utilizes a video production studio with a live instructor giving lectures in real-time to multiple participating students. The videoconference multicasting permits the students to interact with the instructor and other installations during the course of the lecture. Compared to the present inventive system, DiNicola's interaction must occur in real time. All participants must be connected at the same time.
Generally speaking, the concept where a person records something at one time, to be accessed by a second person at a later time convenient to the second person, is well established. This, for example, is exemplified by the personalized time-shifted programming disclosed by Story et al. in their U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,237. The Story et al. patent teaches the retrieval of digital content from a digital library. Once retrieved, the content is stored locally, for example, on a personal computer. The locally stored content is transferred, in whole or in part, to a playback device that allows a user to listen to the content of the playback device. In one embodiment of the Story et al. invention, the user may designate portions of a playback time provided by the playback device to various selections. For example, with a playback device that provides two hours of content, a user may wish to listen to one half hour of news, one half hour of a series and one hour of a book. Thus, the user may partition one quarter of playback time to each of news and the series and one half of the playback time to the book. Content may be selectively updated in accordance with the user's desires. Compared with the present inventive system however, Story does not teach an interaction by a group in structured rounds or cycles.
In another example of Internet-based distributed lectures, the Boys disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,340 shows an Internet-enabled subscription teaching service system. The system has an Internet-connected lecture server executing a software suite, one or more teacher-author stations coupled to the Internet-connected lecture server, having input and display apparatus, and including lecture-authoring software, and one or more Internet-capable lecture client stations having lecture-participation software. Teacher-authors use the teacher-author stations to prepare lectures through the lecture-authoring software, the lecture server stores prepared lectures, and provides lectures on a pre-determined schedule to lecture clients at the lecture client stations, and the lecture clients follow the provided lectures at the lecture client stations through the lecture-participation software. Some lectures are fully automatic, and some are directed by the teacher-authors in real time. In the real time case recipients are directed to web pages in unison, and annotation and commentary is provided by the teacher-author as pages are visited. The invention herein described does not require group members or facilitators to have Internet access, though in some versions of the present invention Internet tools may be included as part of the system and any users who desire to use these tools will need Internet access. In addition, the invention herein described is not necessarily based on web technology. Further, the instant invention does not provide any real-time interactions but offers only non-real-time interactions, and provides, as a key element, tools for the leader to rearrange, reorganize, combine, recombine, redirect, reorder, or delete specific messages.
Another similar example is that in the disclosure of Johnson and Coyle, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,637. That patent teaches an architecture for communication among team organized users. Such teams are comprised of persons in a business environment working on projects where message sharing security must be controlled both within teams and between teams. A project, for example, would have multiple teams, such as executives, attorneys, and accountants. Individual users can be members of multiple teams, but users can only listen to messages of teams they belong to. Compared to the present invention, the Johnson and Coyle patent does not teach structured rounds of discussion between group members, supervised by a facilitator.
“Collaborative learning” also is well established as including post learning event stages where follow-up materials are prepared and presented to the users. Described, for example, by patentees Thean et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,036, is such a learning system, method and computer program product, which enables live, real time interaction between the audience and a presenter in a controlled learning environment. The Thean et al. collaborative learning system, method and computer program product afford a learning process that facilitates the transfer of expertise and knowledge using “push” technology. The system includes a presenter subsystem, a backbone subsystem and an audience subsystem. The process includes pre-event, event and post-event stages. During the pre-event stage, content is created and optimized, and a producer “coaches” the presenter. During the event stage, the presenter and the producer present the event material to a remote audience. The event materials may comprise slides, streaming audio/video and interactive answers to questions and responses to audience feedback. During the post-event stage, follow-up materials are prepared and presented to the audience, case studies are analyzed and the results are presented to the audience, and the event and related documents are archived for later retrieval. The “post-event” features notwithstanding, an essential element of “collaborative learning” is that the instructor and students are all in contact at the same time. In other words, distinguished from the present invention, the collaborative learning system lacks the non-real time aspects, and the interactions conducted in rounds.
A method for connecting a group of people unknown to each other into a live conference call for a short-lived discussion has been established. Barber et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,435, have established a way of connecting callers who call a system, and who wish to speak to others about a particular topic of interest, to be connected to each other in a live conference call, or to be connected to one or more voice messages recorded previously by others and related to the specific area of interest. However, these callers do not maintain any kind of ongoing group interaction; that is, they do not form a group that continues to interact over a period of days, weeks, or months in structured rounds of interaction, as described by the present invention. In addition, the group interaction that may be created, that is, the telephone conference call, is a live interaction. It is a real-time interaction, as are the interactions created using the present invention. In addition, a caller who is connected not into a conference call but with a group of voice messages left by other callers still does not join any organized, structured, ongoing group for an ongoing structured interaction. Rather, he or she merely hears a series of voice messages left by others who may or may not contact him or her and who may or may not ever connect with each other. By contrast, users of the present invention become involved in an ongoing, structured interaction, involving regular interaction with the same group members over a period of time, on a preset schedule.
Various methods for sending voice messages to groups of people are well established. For example, Binns et al., in their U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,733, present a method whereby one caller can call a system, record a voice message, and command the system to deliver that message to a group of individuals whose telephone numbers are stored on the system. The system calls each telephone number and, if the individual answers, delivers the voice message. If the individual does not answer but an answering machine or voice mailbox answers, the system delivers the message into the answering machine or voice mailbox. Thus a message can be broadcast to a specific group. However, this method does not have as its goal the creation of an ongoing, structured group interaction among a set of individuals. Nor does it have as its goal the creation of a seminar or support-group dialogue. Messages are not distributed or delivered on any preset schedule, or with the goal of creating rounds or cycles of group interaction.
In discussing the background of the present invention, a distinction is made between non-interactive or one-way (or broadcast) media, on the one hand, and interactive or two-way electronic media, on the other. Only by drawing this distinction will the advantages of the present invention be clear.
Television, radio, and video and audio cassettes, DVD's, CD's, and the like, are not two-way, interactive media. They provide one-way communication only. They simply present information, and typically do not allow any way for a user to communicate with the creator of that information, or other receivers of that information, other than inviting audience feedback communications, as in listener cards and letters which may or may not be transmitted for public consumption. Still, this does not normally permit an exchange between user and information creator, nor directly between users.
Audio and mixed mode (audio, video, or computer) CD's and DVD's are essentially media which allow only for one-way communication, although these media allow users to interact with the information stored on them to a limited extent. For example, users can select which information they want to see, hear, or use, at a particular moment, using a computer player. To this extent these media are interactive. But, again, these media are not interactive in the sense that they allow users to interact with the creator(s) of the information, or with other users (to ask a question, for example).
Two truly interactive media are the telephone system and Internet based text, voice, and video communications. Both of these allow for two-way communication. These media can allow users to communicate with the creator of a lecture, or communicate with each other. And in most kinds of classes or educational formats, interaction is essential not only between instructor and seminar participants (students), but among participants. Although this kind of interaction is not necessary in pure lectures, it is desirable or necessary in most classes, seminars, and the like. And back-and-forth communication among members of a support group is absolutely essential to the support-group process. The present invention allows communication among class or seminar members, and between a lecturer or instructor and seminar participants, and among group members in any kind of group discussion.
Correspondence courses, which rely on the back-and-forth mailing of paper documents, of course, have been in existence for decades. However, the present invention is different from such courses in that communication is far speedier, because the present invention is electronic and communication through it does not need to wait on postal delivery of documents. Further, postal delivery does not allow for human voice interaction, as in the present invention.